The Pride of Madrid: World Pride 2017

I booked my flight tickets to Madrid, Spain, on a whim. A seven-days-in-advance-whim, to be exact.

So you can imagine my delight when I turned up at Madrid-Barajas Airport to discover that I had landed just in time for World Pride 2017 🌈 (because if there was ever an appropriate time to use the rainbow emoji, it’s now).

I first found out about the celebrations fresh off the plane when I was navigating the metro on my way from the airport to my accommodation. I was huddled in the corner of the carriage, hugging my suitcase to my chest, when a friendly couple sat down next to me. I wasn’t eavesdropping (spoiler alert: I was totally eavesdropping), but I recognised that they were speaking English. Hungry for a conversation that didn’t require me to butcher the Spanish language, I introduced myself.

“Did you know it’s World Pride this week?” the woman asked in a lilting British accent. I responded with a look of excitement.

The city looked like a Skittles monster had just vomited all over it — and that’s no exaggeration. Everywhere you looked were rainbows. Rainbow flags swayed from buildings, rainbow pastries lined the bakery shelves and people danced around the streets wearing the entire colour spectrum. Everyone was participating in the celebrations, and the sense of camaraderie had me quite lost for words.

Madrid is a trailblazer when it comes to LGBTIQ equality and rights, what with having been the third country to legalise same-sex marriage in 2005. This festival was the 40th anniversary of the first LGBT demonstration in Barcelona, so was all the more momentous.

The theme for World Pride 2017 was Viva La Vida; live life.

“… celebrate that we feel alive, alive because we are different, because we are unique, free… happy.”

The crescendo of the week was unmistakably the Pride Parade. Over three million people were expected to have attended – three million! No big deal or anything. That’s just a little under the population of New Zealand.

Having the opportunity to walk in the parade was indescribable. Standing wedged between a troupe of Brazilian carnival dancers and a marching band, I felt simultaneously invisible yet significant all at once. As a gender studies student – and a human – seeing so many people from all walks of life come together to celebrate diversity and identity brought tears to my eyes.

“In itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality. The ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint or obligation.”